


15

by localspacelesbian



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Andi's Birthday, Angst with a Happy Ending, Birthday Party, Cake, F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Panic Attacks, T. J. Kippen & Amber Are Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-29 19:28:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20801744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/localspacelesbian/pseuds/localspacelesbian
Summary: Andi's friends plan her a surprise party for her birthday.





	15

One good thing (probably the only good thing) about Andi going to a different school than all her friends was that it made it a lot easier for them to plan her a surprise birthday party. Cyrus showed up to lunch on September 23rd with a notebook and pen in hand. As soon as everyone was seated, he got started.

“Ok gang, we have five days to plan Andi’s birthday party. First things first, we need a location. We could probably do it at either of my houses or Buffy’s, but that might make it hard to keep it a surprise. What do we think?” He looked at TJ, Marty, and Jonah.

Jonah shook his head and put his hands up. “Don’t look at me. I live in an apartment. We can’t really have parties.”

He looked at his boyfriend. TJ shook his head, too. “My house probably wouldn’t be a great idea, but I could ask.” Cyrus nodded and wrote that down.

“We could have it at my house,” Marty said. They all looked at him. “My moms would totally be cool with it. Plus, we have a pool, so…”

“Would it be warm enough for a pool party, though? I mean, fall did start,” Buffy looked down at her blank wrist, “today.”

TJ snorted. “Yeah, but like climate change, you know. It’s like 80 degrees today.”

“We could check and see what the weather’s supposed to be like this weekend,” Cyrus said as he continued to take notes. “Ok, so next is decorations. Which is usually what Andi would do, but obviously…”

“What about Walker and Libby?” Jonah pointed out. “They both go to SAVA with Andi, and I bet they’d be willing to help.”

Cyrus nodded. “That’s a great idea. Do you still have Libby’s number?”

Jonah nodded. “And I still have Walker’s,” Buffy added.

“Perfect.” Cyrus wrote that down. “Ok, so next: food.”

“Well, if we do end up having it outside, my mom could grill, since it’ll be at our house,” Marty suggested.

Buffy nodded. “And we could probably get Bowie to help. He’s a good cook.”

“I can see if Amber can get us some baby taters from The Spoon,” TJ suggested.

“Ooh. We should try to get those pumpkin donuts from that one place,” Buffy added.

Cyrus looked at her with wide eyes. “Buffy, have I ever told you that you’re a genius?”

“Yes, but go on.”

“Buffy, you’re a genius.”

“I know.” She laughed. “So, what’s next?”

Cyrus looked down at his notebook, and was about to answer her, but Jonah spoke first. “What about the cake?”

“Oh. I was gonna make that,” Cyrus answered, like it was obvious. He always made the cakes. He kept a list of all of his friends’ favorite kinds of cakes, and he loved baking with his step mom.

“Do you need any help?” Jonah offered. And he looked so eager to help that there was no way Cyrus could turn him down.

“We are going to need a lot of cake,” Buffy pointed out.

“Ok, how about I make cupcakes, and you make the cake?” Cyrus offered as a compromise.

Jonah nodded. “I’ll help Jonah,” Buffy offered.

That only slightly reassured Cyrus. As he wrote that down, he thought of the toast-off from the previous year. “Don’t forget, Andi’s favorite kind of cake is-”

“Strawberry. I know. I’m her best friend, too, you know.”

Cyrus nodded. “Right.” He cleared his throat. “Ok, so next is music.”

“We could ask Bex to do that,” Buffy suggested.

Cyrus nodded. Bex always did a good job picking the music for Andi’s parties. He moved on to the next thing on his list. “Ok, we’re gonna need someone to distract Andi all morning while we set up for the party.”

“Amber could do that,” TJ suggested, which Cyrus was pretty sure was just so that way he wouldn’t have to spend as much time with his sister.

Cyrus nodded and wrote it down, as no one had any objections. “Oh. And don’t forget that you two are going to need to take Saturday off work.”

TJ nodded. “Got it.”

“Ok, last is the guest list. How many people do we want to invite?”

Together they came up with a list of people from both Grant and SAVA to invite, deciding they could narrow it down later, depending on what Marty’s moms said about how many people they could have over. All in all, they were off to a pretty good start.

When he got home from school, he made a groupchat with everyone who would be helping, and then a spreadsheet with what everyone’s tasks would be and when they needed to be done. This was going to be the best fifteenth birthday party ever. He would make sure of that.

* * *

Buffy licked some cake batter off of her hand. It did not taste as good as she had expected it to. “Jonah.”

“Yeah?”

“Why is it salty?”

“What do you mean?” Jonah stuck his finger in the batter and licked it off. He made a face that matched how Buffy had felt when she tasted it. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“How’d that happen?”

“I don’t know, Jonah. You were the one who added the salt.”

“I followed the recipe. It says half a tablespoon.”

Buffy looked at the recipe. “Jonah, that says half a _teaspoon_.”

“Oh. What’s the difference?”

“You put 3 times as much salt as you were supposed to.”

“Oh. Well, maybe it’s not that bad.”

“Jonah, you tasted it. We can’t serve that. Besides, if you mixed up all the other teaspoon and tablespoon measurements, the whole cake is ruined.”

“It is?”

“Yes, Jonah. Baking isn’t like cooking. It’s like chemistry. It’s an exact science, and if you don’t follow the measurements precisely, it won’t turn out right.”

“Oh. So what do we do?”

Buffy sighed. “We have to throw this away and start over.” She handed him the bowl and started making sure they had everything to make a whole new cake. She stopped when she noticed him standing over the trash can with the bowl, not dumping it out. She walked over to him. “What are you doing?”

He sighed. “It feels wrong to just throw it away.” He was starting to look slightly panicky, and she had to take a deep breath and remind herself that she absolutely could not lose her patience with him.

“Well, we can’t eat it.”

“I know, but throwing away food hurts me.”

She put her hand on his arm. “Look, I get it-”

“No, you don’t.” She pulled her hand back in surprise. He deflated. “I’m sorry. It’s just…”

She shook her head. “It’s fine. Ok, so maybe I don’t really get it. But there’s nothing we can do about it. We messed up, and that’s ok. You’ve watched those baking shows with Cyrus, right? Even professionals mess up and have to throw away cake batter sometimes. We can start over, and it will be fine. And I can pay you back for the ingredients if you want.”

He shook his head. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I know. But I want to.” She took the bowl from him and started scraping the batter into the trash can.

“Thank you.”

She smiled. “No problem.” When she was done, she rinsed off the bowl, and they started making the batter again, this time double-checking every single measurement before putting them in the bowl.

They poured the successful cake batter into the pan and put it in the oven before setting a timer. They started cleaning everything up while they waited for the cake to bake.

Forty minutes later, the timer went off, and Buffy went into the kitchen to check on the cake. She grabbed some oven mitts and opened the oven to take it out. She coughed as smoke billowed out of the oven. She quickly took the cake out and set it on the stove, closing the oven and turning it off. She tried to keep herself from panicking as Jonah came into the kitchen. Before she could begin to try to figure out what had happened, the smoke alarm started going off. _ Oh no _ . She looked over at Jonah and saw that he was definitely full-on panicking now. _ Oh no _.

She made sure her phone was in her pocket, and started to lead Jonah out of the apartment and out of the building, grabbing his keys and her water bottle on the way. Once they were outside, she led him away from the chaos of people. They couldn’t completely escape the noise, but it had to be good enough. They sat down on a bench, and she put her hand on his arm. She tried not to show how much she was freaking out. She had never actually been there for one of Jonah’s panic attacks before. She tried to remember what Cyrus had told her.

“Jonah, can you look at me?” He looked up at her. “Ok good. Just breathe. You know what’s happening. It’s a panic attack. You’ve had them before, and you were ok then, so you’re going to be ok now. Just breathe. You’re going to be ok. This will end. I’m here for you. I’m not going anywhere.” She didn’t really know what she was doing. She just kept repeating phrases that sounded reassuring and hoped they’d work. Eventually, his breathing started to slow down and become less erratic. She just held his hand and kept telling him that everything was going to be ok. Eventually, the alarm stopped blaring, and a second later, Jonah seemed mostly back to normal. “Are you ok?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I think so. Thank you.” His voice sounded a little hoarse.

She smiled at him and squeezed his hand. “I’m always here for you, Jonah.” He nodded and smiled back at her. She offered him her water and he took it gratefully. They just sat there in silence for a minute.

Then, his mom came up to them, having just gotten home. She looked around with a confused and worried expression on her face. “What’s going on? Are you ok?”

They both nodded, and Buffy explained what had happened. Judy nodded and hugged them both. Then, she ran off to talk to someone else, presumably someone with some kind of authority.

“I’m gonna call Cyrus and tell him what happened, ok? I’ll be right over here.” Jonah nodded, and she stepped a few feet away, pulling out her phone to call Cyrus.

He picked up right away. “Hey Buffy, what’s up?”

“We might be a little late to the party. And I think the cake is ruined.”

“What happened? Are you ok?”

“Yeah, we’re fine. Just, we may have set off the fire alarm, and Jonah may have had a panic attack, but we’re fine. The cake, not so much.”

“Hey, don’t worry about the cake. I’m just glad you’re both ok. I’ll take care of the cake. You two just get here whenever you can, ok?”

She nodded even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “Ok. I’ll text you when we’re on our way.”

“Ok. I love you.”

“Love you too.” She hung up the phone, and walked back over to Jonah.

“Is he mad?”

“Of course not. I told you, everything’s going to be fine.”

He nodded. “Ok.”

Judy came back over and told them they could go inside now. When they got in the apartment, she went in the kitchen, and she opened the oven. “Oh, I see what happened.”

Buffy looked over her shoulder. “What happened?”

“Some of the cake spilled over the pan and onto the bottom of the oven, and it burned.” She closed the oven and looked at what was left of the cake on the stove. “This is probably still edible, but we can pick up a new cake on our way to the party if you want.”

Buffy shook her head. “Cyrus said he’d take care of it, but thank you.”

“No problem. Now, why don’t you kids go get ready. I’ll deal with all this after I drop you off.” She gestured to the oven.

“Are you sure?” Buffy asked.

“Yeah, of course. You don’t want to be late, do you?”

Buffy smiled. “Thank you.” She grabbed her bag from the living room and went in the bathroom to change. When she came out, Jonah and his mom were already waiting by the door. She pointed at the guitar Jonah had on his back. “You’re bringing your guitar to a party? Are you really That Guy?”

“It’s for my present for Andi. I wrote her a song.”

She nodded. “Yeah ok, that’s valid.”

When they got to Marty’s house, they went in the kitchen where Cyrus, Marty’s mom, Bowie, and TJ were getting the food ready. Buffy looked at the several tupperware containers full of cupcakes on the counter and, right next to them, a beautiful cake with strawberries and a chocolate drizzle on top. She pointed at it and looked at Cyrus. “Did you make that?”

He looked at it and then back at her. “Yeah.”

She crossed her arms. “When?”

“Ok… Don’t be mad…”

“When did you make the cake, Cyrus?”

“Last night,” he mumbled.

Buffy scoffed. “You didn’t think we could do it.”

He shrugged. “I always over-prepare. You know that.”

“Oh I see. So you made extra decorations, too?”

He looked down. “No.”

“You have no faith in us.”

“Well, I was right,” he mumbled again.

“What was that?” She asked, even though she had heard him perfectly.

“I said I was right?” Before she could say anything else, he went on. “Besides, I figured, if I was wrong, then we’d have two cakes. Nothing wrong with that, right?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, ok, whatever.” She went out to the backyard to see if anyone out there needed help setting up. She wasn’t really mad at him; she was just upset that he was right, and she needed some space to cool off.

* * *

“Why are we at Marty’s house?” Andi asked as Amber parked the car. The two of them had been out shopping all morning, which was nice because they hadn’t hung out just the two of them in a while. Although she thought it was kind of weird that know one else had invited her to do anything for her birthday, she wasn’t going to say anything about it.

Amber rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically as she got out of the car. “My idiot brother left his phone charger here the other day, and if I don’t pick it up for him, he’s gonna keep using mine. Come on, it’ll only take a second.”

Andi nodded and got out of the car. “Ok then.” She grabbed her purse out of the backseat and closed the door.

Amber came around to the other side of the car and led her toward the house. Andi smiled and followed her. To her surprise, Amber did not lead her to the front door, but to the gate leading to the back yard. She looked at Amber in confusion. “What are we doing?”

“They aren’t home, so they left the back door open for me.”

Andi nodded, though she wasn’t quite sure if she believed her. All of her friends had been acting weird all week. Even Libby and Walker had been working on some kind of secret art project they wouldn’t tell her about (which didn’t make her jealous at all. Nope.)

Amber must have noticed her unease because she stopped right in front of the gate and put her hand on her arm. “You trust me, right Bambi?”

“Yeah…” Because someone asking you if you trusted them always made them seem so trustworthy…

“Then, come on.” She opened the gate and held it open. “Ladies first.”

Andi scoffed. “I think you’re more of a lady than I am.”

Amber pouted. “I’m just trying to be nice.”

Andi held her hands up in mock surrender and walked through the gate.

“Surprise!!”

Andi felt her heart stop for a second, and she definitely jumped (and maybe screamed a little). But when she realized what was happening, she smiled. All of her friends and a bunch of her classmates (both from SAVA and from Jefferson) were there. She saw her parents standing over by the grill. Buffy and Cyrus came running up to her to give her a hug. “Oh my god, you did this?” They both nodded. “I love it!”

“It’s just another service we provide,” they said in unison. She noticed that they were both wearing swimsuits under their clothes.

She laughed, and then turned to Amber as she came to a realization. She poked her. “‘Let’s go swimsuit shopping because they’re cheaper in the fall,’” she quoted back to Amber, laughing and shaking her head. “I can’t believe I fell for that.”

Amber smiled and held up their shopping bags from that morning. “Well, I wasn’t wrong. Now come on, let’s go change.” She led her inside.

When they came back outside, the party was in full swing, with music playing and people swimming in the pool. She noticed Bowie and Marty’s mom starting the grill. Cyrus and Buffy came up to her again and each took one of her hands, leading her over to the pool. They all jumped in together, still holding hands. The three of them laughed when they came up for air. They talked for a few minutes before Buffy and Cyrus went over to the other side of the pool where their boyfriends were trying to get a basketball game started.

Andi looked around and saw Libby and Walker sitting on the edge of the pool a few feet away. She swam over to them. “So, I take it you two did the decorations,” she said, signing at the same time. They both nodded. “Well, they’re amazing.”

They both signed, ‘thank you,’ at the same time, which Andi thought was adorable.

She smiled at them. “You two should come swim with me.”

Walker shook his head. “No thanks, man. I’m good.”

Andi pouted. Libby laughed and signed, ‘I’ll swim with you.’

Andi gave her a huge grin and pulled her into the water. The two of them swam around the pool, splashing each other, laughing, talking, mostly avoiding where TJ, Buffy, Marty, and Jonah were now playing basketball together with Cyrus cheering them on from the sidelines. He kissed TJ and high-fived the other three every time they made a basket.

A while later, Bowie announced that food was ready, and they all sat around the backyard eating hot dogs and hamburgers (and veggie burgers) and baby taters. Andi and Libby took their food and sat next to each other on the lounge chair where Libby had put her stuff.

When they were done eating, they set their plates to the side, and Libby started digging through her bag. She pulled out a small box that had a ribbon wrapped around it in a beautiful bow. She handed it to Andi and signed, ‘Happy birthday.’

Andi smiled. ‘Thank you,’ she signed back. Libby gestured for her to open it. Andi didn’t want to untie the bow, so she just slid it off. She very carefully removed the wrapping paper, setting it aside with the bow. She opened the box and let out a small gasp when she saw what was in it. She pulled it out slowly. It was a beautiful necklace. The pendant was a rock that the two of them had found a couple weeks ago when they had gone on a walk together. Libby had said it matched Andi’s eyes and asked to keep it. She had wrapped it in wire and put it on a silver chain. Andi signed, ‘it’s beautiful.’

Libby smiled. ‘So are you.’ Andi smiled and blushed slightly. Then, Libby asked if she could put it on her, and Andi nodded and handed it over.

She turned around and felt Libby put the necklace on her. Her breath caught in her throat slightly and she felt her heartbeat pick up. She turned back around and signed, ‘thank you,’ again.

She thought that Libby was going to say something, but she was interrupted by Bex coming out of the house carrying the birthday cake with lit candles on top. Everyone gathered around Andi and sang to her.

“Make a wish,” Bex said when everyone finished singing.

Andi thought for a second, looking around at everyone around her. She looked over at Libby for a second. Then, she closed her eyes and blew out the candles.

They cut into the cake, and she got the first (and biggest) piece. People started to disperse a bit with their cake, and her other friends came and sat by her and Libby. “The cake is delicious as always, Cyrus,” she said, assuming he had made it.

“Actually, Buffy and Jonah made it.” Andi definitely didn’t believe him, but Buffy looked so happy when he said that that she decided to pretend like she did. There was definitely a story there that she’d have to ask them about later.

Eventually, people started to leave, and Libby’s mom texted her that she was on her way to pick her up. Andi offered to walk her out to her car. They stood out in front of the house alone for a bit waiting for her mom to get there.

The stood there in a slightly awkward silence for a second. Andi could tell there was something they both wanted to say but were too scared to. And she knew what it was, or at least hoped. Andi realized that Libby had kind of made the first move with the necklace, so it was probably her turn. She was secretly glad that she’d have to sign it because she didn’t think she was capable of saying it out loud. She stood in front of Libby and looked at her, taking a deep breath. ‘I like you.’

Libby smiled. ‘I like you, too.’ Andi let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding and lifted up her pinky to wrap around Libby’s. They stood there, just smiling at each other until Libby saw her mom’s car pull up over Andi’s shoulder. She leaned up to kiss Andi on the cheek and then let go of Andi’s pinky before walking away. Andi watched her walk passed her and toward the car. She turned back to wave at her just before getting in. Andi waved back and stood there for a minute, watching as the car pulled away.

When she got back to the party, she checked her phone and saw a text from Libby.

Libby: are you free tomorrow?

Andi’s grin somehow became impossibly wider.

Andi: Cece’s taking me out to dinner for my birthday 😞

Libby: 😞

Andi: Why?

Libby: I was gonna ask you on a date

Andi: You still can

Andi: I’m free monday after school 😉

Libby: 😀

Libby: Do you wanna go to that new exhibit at the art museum we were talking about the other day?

Andi: I’d love too 😀

Andi: (though Walker might be mad if we go without him)

Libby: We’ll buy him something in the gift shop

Andi: 😂

Andi: I can’t wait 😀

Andi looked up and saw Cyrus and Buffy standing in front of her. She sent one more text to Libby before putting her phone away.

Andi: Cyrus and Buffy are giving me Looks. I should probably get back to the party. I’ll text you later.

“So… who were you texting?” Cyrus asked, smiling like he already knew the answer.

Andi blushed. “Libby.”

“Oh?” Buffy shared a Look with Cyrus. “And?” she asked.

“And… she asked me out.” She couldn’t contain her excitement anymore, and the three of them jumped up and down squealing.

“Tell us everything,” Cyrus insisted, Buffy nodding in agreement.

So, the three of them sat down, and she told them everything: the necklace, the rock, the confession, the texts. They talked until it was time to leave, excited that for once, all of them were in a relationship.


End file.
